Deceptively Idyllic Country Living in the Heart of Jersey

At the back page of tonight's JEP is an advertisement for a new property development, with the slogan "Idyllic Country Living in the Heart of Jersey", and the blurb goes on to say "A beautifully designed development of three and four bedroom traditional style first time buyers homes priced from £435,000"

Leaving aside the vexed question of which first time buyers can really afford these prices, prices which would seem to exclude anyone outside of the finance industry, and precisely what is meant by that wonderful nonsense generated phrase "traditional style" (as opposed to Corbusier style cubist?), I would like to describe the picture above the advertisement.

This shows six houses in a row, viewed from the vantage point of just below a gently hanging tree, casting its shade onto the road, and with a backdrop of trees. In each garden, is one small tree, and several smaller bushy shrubs. In the back behind the trees are fluffy clouds. All in all this artists impression - for that is what it is - certainly looks idyllic.

What seems to be ignored is the fact that most of the bordering trees have been chopped down if they are anywhere near the road, or that far from being in the heart of the country, it is in fact close to Goose Green Marsh, Beaumont, nearer the coast than inland. Will the greenery that the picture is blessed with be present? Does the £435,000 included small trees and shrubs? I doubt it.

But the most misleading fact about the picture is its depiction of 6 houses, when in point of fact, there are over 100 houses. It is a housing estate. Pleasant most likely, though probably with significantly less greener than the artist gives it, but a lot of houses, more like Mont Es Croix estate, for example, than the small and remote cul-de-sac which the picture promotes. Most people will see not a skyline of trees behind their houses, but rooftops.

It would be an interesting experiment to take pictures of the completed estate and compare them with the artists impression. Especially when the dustbins are due for collection. The impressionists actually tried to capture reality; this impression seems almost totally illusory.

Idyllic Country Living in the Heart of Jersey? I would call it deceptively Idyllic Country Living in the Heart of Jersey, with the emphasis on the word deceptive.

A picture can tell a thousand words, and it can also tell a thousand lies.